| Issue |
EPL
Volume 79, Number 2, July 2007
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 26003 | |
| Number of page(s) | 6 | |
| Section | Condensed Matter: Structural, Mechanical and Thermal Properties | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/79/26003 | |
| Published online | 03 July 2007 | |
Nanoscale observation of delayering in alkane films
1
Department of Physics and Astronomy and University of Missouri Research Reactor, University of Missouri-Columbia - Columbia, MO 65211, USA
2
National Synchrotron Light Source, Brookhaven National Laboratory - Upton, NY 11973
3
Facultad de Física, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile - Santiago 22, Chile
4
Department of Chemistry, Technical University of Denmark - IK 207 DTU, DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark
Received:
11
January
2007
Accepted:
4
June
2007
Tapping-mode Atomic Force Microscopy and synchrotron X-ray scattering measurements on dotriacontane (n-C32H66 or C32) films adsorbed on SiO2-coated Si(100) wafers reveal a narrow temperature range near the bulk C32 melting point 
in which a monolayer phase of C32 molecules oriented perpendicular to surface is stable. This monolayer phase undergoes a delayering transition to a three-dimensional (3D) fluid phase on heating to just above and to a solid 3D phase on cooling below . An equilibrium phase diagram provides a useful framework for interpreting the unusual spreading and receding of the monolayer observed in transitions to and from the respective 3D phases.
PACS: 68.08.Bc – Wetting / 68.43.Hn – Structure of assemblies of adsorbates (two- and three-dimensional clustering) / 87.64.Dz – Scanning tunneling and atomic force microscopy
© Europhysics Letters Association, 2007
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